Question - Wall Install

Looking to install a small wall at my dad's house, basically for practice. Question has to do with prep.

The house is a walkout, so naturally the grade from the front of the house to the back of the house drops - probably about 4ft or so. The house is 40ft wide with a chimney in the center of the wall. The idea is to install a small wall from the right side of the chimney to the back corner of the house. Question is, do I start at the back corner of the house, the lowest point, and cut level to the chimney to start the first course of block? This would cause a few courses (or at least half of them) to be buried. Is this an effective way to go about this venture?

You do not need more than one course buried, and depending on the height and type of block, you may not even need a whole course buried. You do need to bury at least part of the first course. Just follow the manufactorers suggestions.

You have frost heave to contend with, here I just dig a trench twice a deep as my block height and fill with crushed compacted gravel to approximately the starting level. I then start the first course at the lowest point, and level in all directions. I continue with this course until the point where a whole block would be buried, then I step up a course. Not sure if I am painting a clear picture, but Im sure someone here can explain it better than me.

You could do it like that. But, you'll waste a lot of material in doing so. You can do what we call stepping the wall.

First off, rule-of-thumb on how much wall to bury, is 10% of total wall height. 24 inches tall, bury 2.5 inches of wall.

Next stepping. You take the thickness of you base course of block, say 3 1/2-inches thick. wherever the grade drops or rises 3 1/2-inches or somewhere close to that you'll have a step. Each step down will need to be excavated the same as the higher level plus the thickness of the block. The next step will need to be excavated the previous depth plus the wall units thickness. Each step should have a solid overlapping block splitting the joint.

Starting at the lowest point is the best way for beginners working with stepping walls down. Here are a few pics of step-downs in a wall.

The stakes represent every step-down. In this picture the base course is 3 1/3 -inches thick. Every time the elevation drops 3 1/2-inches we have a step.

We mix 5-parts concrete sand with 1-part portland cement. No water is added. We call this, "dry-mix". then we screed it out just like sand for pavers. Gives us a nice level pad to set on. Also, speeds up the leveling of each block front-to-back and side-to-side. Then we lightly wet it after the base course is installed.
And, we have never had a wall fail